Planning To Bring Wrapped Gifts Through MSP Airport? TSA Offers A Better Idea

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- If you traveled for the holidays last year, expect traffic through Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to be twice as busy this holiday season.

MSP is expecting to average about 28,000 people a day through TSA checkpoints this holiday.

Airport travel is still not back to pre-pandemic levels. It's down about 25-35%, but it's certainly picked up compared to 2020.

Many people flying this time of year are traveling with presents and homemade treats. Marty Robinson, Minnesota's TSA federal security director, shared what's acceptable, and what he suggests as far as getting yourself and your gifts through security efficiently.

"When folks are going through, we hope they know not to wrap presents," Robinson said. "It's better to put them in a holiday bag because if a suspicious item is inside or it alerts, we have to unwrap it. So the holiday bag is the way to do it, or to do the wrapping on the other side."

Roy Fuhrmann is COO of the Metropolitan Airports Commission.

"We know that there's gonna be busy times, especially early in the morning. We just ask passengers to come early," Fuhrmann said. "We recommend about two hours on a domestic flight and three hours on an international."

As an extra safety precaution, most of MSP is contactless. You can order food to be delivered to your gate through the Navigate MSP app.

You can also reserve your parking spot ahead of time, and save up to $7 a day through the holiday travel season.

Masks are still required throughout the airport.